Breezing though Nicaragua and Costa Rica
Breezing through Nicaragua & Costa Rica with .. NICOLE !
The first familiar face i’d seen in over 4 months...
showed up with a huge smile on her face to meet me in Nicaragua!
It felt like perfect timing. I could use some familiarity in my life after the last few days spent getting a new visa... and Nicole was the perfect pick me up I needed after saying goodbye to Roatan.
Meet Nicole!
Her and I met through work, at Workiva. She lives in Denver, I was in Chicago, but our intensive work travel schedule had us on the road a lot together. Causing this beautiful friendship to blossom. We had gotten in our fair share of trouble together and I expected this trip to be no different...
I was so honored that she wanted to come visit and live in my new world for a couple weeks!!
She flew into Managua, the nothing special capital of Nicaragua, and checked us into a Hilton. Which was shear luxury for me at this point in the game. I took a HOT (for once) shower and face planted on to those 4 fluffy pillows as I waited for her to arrive, not knowing if I would ever be able to get up.
It was so exciting to see her walk through that door! It was almost surreal really, to see someone from my former life. But naturally it took like .02 seconds for it to feel like I had just been with her last week!
Our first stop was Granada, Nicaragua
Granada, OF COURSE, turned out to be the FIRST city I have been too that just didn’t do it for me.
I felt no connection to it.
In my opinion it had no character, no authentic culture, and nothing special about it.
The one thing I wanted to see was a volcanic lava pool. We saw it, and while it was pretty amazing to peer down and see hot boiling lava, it was so touristy and a way different experience than I thought it was going to be.
Now, I can handle this, this is part of traveling. But it 100% gutted me that this was Nicole’s introduction to my life on the road. To be honest, I felt terrible. I felt like I should have warned her more about what this trip could or couldn't be. But I am glad it was our first stop, because our main priority was to chat and catch up... and we can do that anywhere!
We headed to a bar, ate some nachos and drank one too many of the local beers - Toña. All night joking that since Granada sucked we would just drink our way through it by hopping on what we dubbed the ‘Toña Train.’
NEXT STOP: SAN JUAN DEL SUR
A beach town most well know for their 'Sunday Funday' bar crawl and surf spots. We spent our time here in the pool, drinking smoothies, getting our yoga on, and tried our hand at surfing!!
Nicole had never surfed before. We signed up for a lesson, hopped in the van to take us to the beach, and spent the first 15 minutes laying out in the sun waiting for the instructor until...
SO MUCH RAIN
Then spent the next 1.5 hours under a hut watching a torrential down pour ..
We can’t catch a break can we?
It eventually cleared up to a drizzle and we had a wonderful surf lesson with our instructor Pedro
It was MUCH easier than my first lesson in El Salvador with Denise, those waves were vicious!
COSTA RICA
Our next stop was Costa Rica, the country Nicole was most excited about!
We started in Monteverde. A mountainous town known for its forests in the clouds! Aka.. the rain forest. Where we most definitely learned why the rain forest is called the RAIN forest. It was cold, and rainy. By rainy I mean RAINY.
We couldn’t help but just laugh and embrace it.
We spent an afternoon walking hanging bridges over the tree line of the rain forest in the pouring rain. Dancing in the rain with smiles in our face.
We also did a hike through another cloud forest and lucked out with some sunshine
NICOYA PENINSULA, Costa Rica
Next we were headed to the coast for hopefully some sunshine, beach, surf, and yoga.
Nicole had read about the Nicoya peninsula, an area I had never really heard of. It’s a blue zone, meaning it is one of the five places in the world where people statistically live the longest!
Took a couple buses and a ferry to get to our final Nicoya Peninsula destination of Santa Teresa. A surf town, with one long dirt road that made up the main drag of the town. Lined with a couple hostels, cafes, shops and sodas. A 'soda' is the name for local restaurants serving Costa Rican dishes!
The beaches were huge, untouched and backed up straight into the jungle!
We stayed at Selena the Traveler. Definitely one of the more unique hostels I have been too. Right on the beach with a pool.
We came here in the name of relaxation. Yoga, beach, surf repeat.
We had some rain, of course. But we had a great time here. We rented bikes with some new friends and went surfing, ate some delicious food, practiced yoga with some characters, and relaxed at the pool.
We had a big night out in Santa Teresa to celebrate both of our birthdays with some new friends we made at the hostel. Nico and I had an absolute blast!!
Santa Teresa was a wonderful way to end our time together.
We were able to smile through all the rain and hurdles, that to me is the sign of a true friend.
Nicole is one of those friends that you can just... talk too.
One of those people you can really count on. One you can share your secrets with.
Thank you Nico!
Nicole arrived on my trip at a point where I was the most tan I had ever been.. WIN.. but she also arrived at a point where I was at my most fragile I’d been in since being out here. With my head and heart all over the place she was really able to listen, talk me through some stuff, and put a smile on my face.
Between the Granada disappointment, the rain, and my out of character state.. Nicole probably got something other than she bargained for... However, Nico being Nico, was able to see the good in everything and took it like a freaking CHAMP.
So cheers to you Nico, you did more for me on that trip than you know and I wanted to say...
THANK YOU!!!
Here is a video of all the good times had.
What Next?
Nicole had a flight back to the States out of San Jose, Costa Rica.
I had original plans in my mind to continue through Costa Rica into Panama and sail the San Blas Islands to Cartagena, Colombia.
But, I don’t know if I am feeling that anymore.. maybe I have to get out of Central America, I need a change of pace. I could go to the airport with Nicole and fly to Colombia.. but that would be changing these 'plans' I had to see all 7 Central American countries.
BUT, do I really need to see... everything...?
...
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